


Reflections

by My_Beating_Hart



Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Character Study, Childhood, Gen, Gen Work, Introspection, Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 07:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10635339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Beating_Hart/pseuds/My_Beating_Hart
Summary: A short character study about Nathaniel Howe.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from my Tumblr [here](https://whatthefenriis.tumblr.com/post/158757197279/its-late-but-as-i-was-washing-my-hands-earlier-i):   
> I have a new [writing blog](https://whatthefenriis.tumblr.com/) up: as well as a [ko-fi page/button](https://ko-fi.com/A447GW5). Maybe consider following, reblogging or otherwise supporting me in my future endeavours? You don't have to, though.  
> I may or may not continue this in some form, if inspiration strikes.

He’d been born on a bitter Haring night. Delilah had followed three years after, in the spring. Thomas five years after that not long after All Soul’s Day. Thomas’ was a difficult birth that had kept the keep staff anxious all night long, the tension palpable when word crept like fog that there was too much blood and it was taking too long.

In the days after that, when his brother had been born safely and his mother was recovering, he remembered overhearing two of the elven maids gossiping as they cleaned the silver. One of them was Jenna, and he liked Jenna. She didn’t cosset him like the other staff did, and she taught him an impressive array of mild expletives when the nursemaid wasn’t around to hear.

Now she and an older woman talked in hushed tones about how Lady Eliane wouldn’t be able to bear children again after such a difficult birth, even if she’d wanted another reminder of Lord Rendon’s other use for her. As an eight year old hiding out of sight for fear of a scolding for being out of bed so late, he’d not understood what that meant and not wanted to ask even Jenna. So he’d asked Father instead.

The next day the two maids were publicly whipped and dismissed from the keep for their insolence. Father was furious. Jenna’s name was never mentioned again, and after a week two new maids had been found. Mother recovered, as did Thomas, and life went on. Delilah pulled his hair or broke the lances off his wooden toy soldiers so he responded as respectfully as any older brother would and ripped the arms off her dolls and kicked her shins under the table at dinner. 

Nathaniel was never told what those maids had meant, but as the years passed and he paid closer attention to how Mother and Father acted around each other, he grew to understand.


End file.
